About Elliptical Marquee Tool

ELLIPTICAL MARQUEE TOOL (SHIFT+M):

This tool works much like Rectangular Marquee Tool and allows us to make oval or circular selections.

To select Elliptical Marquee Tool, right click on Rectangular marquee tool, then click on second tool from the list.

With this tool we can make oval or circular selections. Here, I am working with circle (moon).

 1. Open an image

2. If we want to draw a perfect circle, first we have to change some options in options bar. In options bar change style option to “FIXED ASPECT RATIO” and by default width and height will be set to 1 and 1. This will create a perfect circle.

NOTE: if you change the width and heights to unequal values (like width-2 and height-3), then we will be able to draw oval selections.

“Selecting circles with elliptical marquee tool is somehow difficult. But with some tricks selecting circles is pretty interesting.”

3. Now, click and hold mouse left button on top left of the object and drag down to select object. But, you will see that selection outline goes far away from the object. At that time press spacebar and move selection outline by still holding mouse button and adjust selection outline around the object. Do this for several times until the selection is complete.

 NOTE: We should not release mouse button until the selection is complete.

You can release mouse button only after the selection is complete.

4. Now we have selected the object perfectly.

5. Once you have completed the selection press “V” or click on move tool which is present at the top of the tools panel. Now, drag the selected object by clicking and holding mouse left button in to a new image.

6. Now, you will see that dragged object is pretty big in the second image. So, we have to resize the image. To do this, press, "CTRL+T". A boundary box will appear. Now, press SHIFT+ALT and click and hold mouse left button at any of the four corners and drag inward to decrease the size or drag outward to increase the size.

Press enter after resize to remove boundary box.

NOTE: To deselect elliptical marquee tool press CTRL+D.

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